2 Aug. David becomes King of Israel
“Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said to him, ‘Look, we are your own family. Even when Saul was king, you were the one who led Israel in battle. The LORD said to you, “You will be a shepherd for my people Israel. You will be their leader.”’”
“So all the elders of Israel came to King David at Hebron, and he made an agreement with them in Hebron in the presence of the LORD. Then they poured [olive] oil on David to make him king over Israel.”
“David was 30 years old when he became king, and he ruled 40 years. He was king over Judah in Hebron for seven years and six months, and he was king over all Israel and Judah in Jerusalem for 33 years.”
“When the king and his men went to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites who lived there, the Jebusites said to David, ‘You can’t get inside our city. Even the blind and the crippled can stop you.’ They thought David could not enter their city. But David did take the city of Jerusalem with its strong walls, and it became the City of David.”
“That day David said to his men, ‘To defeat the Jebusites you must go through the water tunnel. Then you can reach those “crippled” and “blind” enemies. This is why people say, “The blind and the crippled may not enter the palace.”’”
“So David lived in the fortified city and called it the City of David. David built more buildings around it, beginning where the land was filled in. He also built more buildings inside the city. He became stronger and stronger, because the LORD God All-powerful was with him.”
“Hiram king of the city of Tyre sent messengers to David, along with cedar logs, carpenters and stonecutters. They built a palace for David. Then David knew that the LORD really had made him king of Israel and that the LORD had made his kingdom great because the LORD loved his people Israel.”
(2 Samuel 5:1-12)
After the murder of Saul’s son Ish-Bosheth, the elders of Israel decided to negotiate with David, and agreed to anoint him as King of Israel at Hebron in c.1004BC.
We’re told that David was 30 years old when he became King of Judah, and he reigned for 40 years – seven and a half years as King of Judah, and a further 33 years as king of the re-united Kingdom of Israel and Judah (2 Samuel 5:4-5). Bearing in mind that David became King of Judah on the death of Saul about two years after defeating Goliath, this would suggest that he was a young man aged about 27 or 28 when he killed the Philistine champion (see 1 Samuel 18:6-30 & 1 Samuel 27:7).
One of David’s first acts as King of Israel was to capture Jerusalem from the fiercely independent Canaanite tribe of Jebusites. He moved his capital from Hebron to Jerusalem and lived in the Fortress of Zion which he called the City of David.
When David’s men captured Jerusalem, the city was much smaller than it is today, and was confined to the low north-south ridge called Ophel (meaning ‘the hump’) to the south of what is now the Temple Mount.
David’s heavily armed men took the defenders by surprise as they climbed up through the narrow vertical shaft and sloping tunnel that enabled the Jebusites to haul water up from the Gihon Spring (the ‘gusher spring’) outside the city wall into their fortified city on top of Ophel Hill.
After being occupied by David’s forces, the old Jebusite city became known as the City of David and the ridge on which it stood was renamed Mount Zion.
Excavated remains of the old Jebusite city wall, and the ancient underground water system, including the section now known as Warren’s Shaft, can still be visited today.
The photo (by Deror avi) shows part of the Jebusite wall at the City of David.
You can read more about the City of David @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney2/30-israel-becomes-a-kingdom-under-saul-and-david/david-captures-jerusalem/